I am a writer, reporter and photographer in beautiful Kingston, Jamaica.

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Is this journalism?

I am currently in the end stages of a community journalism training program. We have trained roughly 30 people in how to be an investigative journalist. Everything from interviewing, to researching to writing and editing. It has been an exhausting but rewarding experience and at the end of it, we will have 10 investigative pieces published in the media. It seems this type of program is exactly what journalism needs here, when we see headlines like this:

Trini prostitute causing headache at ‘Back Road’

Granted, this story appears in the Jamaica Star, but I still wonder how the editor let it get through the door. It meets none of the basic criteria for a legitimate news story, although the reporter apparently did do an interview with the source. I guess it is more entertainment, although it seems to be slightly exploitative. In any case, check out the story here if you wish.

I don’t want to appear too cynical but I don’t hold out much hope for investigative journalism in Jamaica. For years we had journalists come over to do training at the Embassy…but whatever the reporters do, their editors are looking over their shoulder and will have the final say – often censorship – and the media owners certainly don’t want to “rock the boat.” I don’t know. Journalists here regularly self-censor…